It stole the show at last year's auto show. Now the Cadillac Converj is getting the green light from General Motors. This is not only a smart move that could pay off over time for GM, but it also shows how far the auto maker has come in moving quicker when it comes to taking new models from concept to production.

Asian stock markets made modest gains on Wednesday, as investors shrugged off the rocky session on Wall Street overnight and focused instead on strong data out of China, which showed factory output jumping to a 19-month high in October.

Middle-aged investors looking to retire in about 20 years should position their portfolios to have a 25 to 30 percent stake in equities outside of the United States, Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer at PIMCO told CNBC Monday.

Reporters and editors are already calling Ford's third quarter earnings surprising. And yes, it is surprising when analysts are expecting a company to lose 12 cents a share, and it earns 26 cents/share. But make no mistake; the blue oval has been going from red (losing money) to black (making money) for some time.

The latest Consumer Reports survey of people who have bought more than 1.4 million vehicles, is further proof of the gulf between Ford and its fellow Big 3 auto makers, GM and Chrysler. While Consumer Reports now lists Ford as being on par with Asian automakers, GM and Chrysler continue to struggle.

The beauty of the X PRIZE is that it highlights a growing, but largely overlooked segment of inventors and entrepreneurs who are building cars that do not run on gas or diesel. These are folks experimenting with batteries, ethanol, even algae as the fuel to power our cars ad trucks.

Maybe it's because there were few other options. Maybe it's because HUMMER has fallen in relevance among automakers. Or maybe it's because people finally realize it was inevitable for a Chinese company to buy an American automaker.

The Nikkei 225 is currently the weakest of the major stock indexes and could fall toward its March lows of around 7,000 points next month, Roelof van den Akker, chartist at ING Wholesale Banking, told CNBC.